I don't think it's fair to say the Chinese teams are horrible.
In fact, I don't think they've ever been as bad as people make them out to be:
-Last year EDG almost 2-0d Paper Rex at a time when people considered them the 2nd best team in the world.
-Both EDG and ASE consistently scrim franchised APAC teams.
-Even though EDG lost to 100T at lock-in, 100T was looking stronger back then (beat FUT, which ironically enough is competing this time around as EMEA #3 seed).
This is not to say that I think 100T is better than FUT right now (No, FUT has 100% improved tremendously since Lock-In) But that's exactly why I don't think it's fair to dismiss ASE and especially EDG based on their past performances when they've had an equal window of opportunity to improve themselves.
It's a common argument to say that their region is uncompetitive, but if you really think about it: the fact that FGC is a separate league from APAC means that teams like DRX and T1 can scrim against them without holding back any strats--at least until now (they're definitely a great scrim partner given that APAC's challengers scene isn't as developed as EMEA's or NA's).
T1's coach Autumn has even said some really good things about ASE specifically, like how "When Life is activated, ASE are unstoppable" in their scrims.
I genuinely predict that either EDG or ASE are going to make a deeper run at Tokyo than many of you realize, they're going to pull an upset or two and you'll feel the same way you did when you underrated Cloud9.
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